When marine engines are removed from the water for transportation, storage or maintenance purposes, the marine engine may contain saltwater and/or debris such as sand, slit, mud or alkalis. The saltwater and debris, accumulated during use, have corrosive effects on the marine engine's parts. Therefore, the saltwater and debris must be flushed from the marine engine to prevent corrosion.
In order to accomplish the internal cleaning of such marine engines, the general procedure is to force clean or fresh water in through the cooling inlet port of the marine engine. During operation in a marine environment, water is taken into the cooling inlet port to cool the engine. By forcing the cleaning water through the engine in this fashion, cleansing or removal of saltwater and/or debris from the working parts of the engine is accomplished.
Numerous prior art devices are in existence and are commercially available which are designed to secure a supply of cleansing fluid to the marine engine cooling inlet port so that the cleansing fluid will be driven through the engine in the manner described above. These devices and/or assemblies take many forms and are generally represented in the following: U.S. Pat. No. 4,359,063 to Carlson, issued Nov. 16, 1982; U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,377 to Saunder et al., issued Dec. 10, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 4,973,276 to Maurelis, issued Nov. 27, 1990; U.S. Pat. No. 4,246,863 to Reese, issued Jan. 12, 1981; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,828 to Lawler, issued Jan. 13, 1976.
As is the case with all of the flushing accessories cited above, the user is required to return to the source of the water supply (which is often remote) each time the operator wishes to initiate or terminate the flow of fluid. Additionally, the user must turn the engine ignition "on" and "off" at the ignition switch to start and stop the marine engine. This is especially true for maintenance procedures requiring the intermittent operation of the marine engine.
This repetitious process is particularly inefficient in a large shop or boat yard environment where it may be impractical to orient the entire vessel or move the marine engine close to a fluid supply. This repetitious process required by the flushing accessories described above has numerous deficiencies. First, the act of the operator having to return to the fluid supply each time he wishes to initiate or terminate the flow of fluid is appreciably time consuming. In a shop environment, this inefficiency translates into increased costs to the shop owner and ultimately the consumer.
Second, once the flow of fluid is initiated, the fluid will flow through the marine engine continuously until it is terminated at the fluid supply. It follows that even the most conscientious operator must allow the fluid to flow unnecessarily through the marine engine before and after his maintenance procedure for as long as it takes him to return to the fluid supply source. Furthermore, during maintenance procedures that require the intermittent operation of the marine engine, it is often impractical to terminate the flow when the engine is stopped and re-initiate it when the engine is restarted. The result being that more often than not, water is wastefully allowed to flow for the entire time it takes to complete the maintenance procedure.
Third, there also exists the possibility that during procedures which require the repetitive intermittent operation of the marine engine, and subsequent intermittent operation of the water flow, an operator may inadvertently forget to initiate the fluid flow, thereby potentially causing severe damage to the marine engine. Because of the orientation of the engine, ignition switch, lower drive unit, water supply source, water inlets and exhaust ports relative to each other, the flow of fluid may not be readily ascertainable to the operator which heightens the risk. This separation of key components is common when performing maintenance procedures or flushing procedures on marine engines that are not removed from the vessel which they propel.
The apparatus and method of the present invention provides a novel, highly reliable marine engine flushing system. The unique combination of a flushing accessory, solenoid switched valve, and electronic switch allows control over both the flow of cleansing fluid to the marine engine and the starting of the marine engine from a single convenient location. Thus, the present invention eliminates the inefficient use of fluid resources, increases the productivity of the operator and reduces the potential for running the marine engine without the necessary coolant.